or 123 a.d.; though Gregorovius decides for 124 or 125 a.d., and
Keil for 125 a.d.* Now, however, since the investigation of Ditten-
berger (Hermes, VII., 1873, 213 ff.), it seems almost certain that
the latest date is the only tenable one. Dittenberger himself thinks
the year 125-126 a.d. the most probable.

The next point is perhaps even more difficult, that is, to determine
when the final dedication took place. There are two passages in
which an attempt is made to fix this date. The first is in Philostra-
tOS (Vit. Soph., I. 25, 6) : to 8e 'AOyjvrjcriv 'OXv/xttlov 81 i^rjKovra kol
Trei'TaKOWLaiy iru>v aTTOTeXecrOiv Ka$i.epojcras 6 avTOKpdrwp ws )(povov peya
dywvtcr/xa. There seems to be no various reading here, but one is
much tempted to believe that efa/cocnW was written instead of Trevra-
koctlwv. Assuming 530 b.C. as the date of the beginning, 660 years
would bring it down to 130 a.d., or almost the exact time at which
the dedication is generally placed. If the writer were giving the date
in round numbers, he might have said 600, but it is hard to see on
what grounds he could have written 560. The other is the scholium
on the passage of Lucian cited above (Scholia, III. 57, Jacob.) : to
'OA.v//.7riov, oirep eo"Ti^ lepov tov OXv/jlttlov Atos ev 'AOnvaa, Sia /xcya-
Xovpyiav airopovvTdiV ' AOrjvalwv xprjpaTatv ets rrjv KaracrKivyjv, TrXeiov to>v
t' Itwv Trapereive KTi£,6p,evov, ais kol 6 iv Ku£i/<u) rews • xal ovk av crvveTe-
XeaOqcrav apc^a), el p.rj ASpiafos 6 avTOKpdrwp 'Paj/xataiv 8^/xoo"tots ava-

Aw/xao-t crvvavTtXdfieTo rwv epyiov. The three hundred years here are
evidently reckoned from Antiochos Epiphanes (175 b.C.), and this
is entirely correct; still, we have merely an approximation. In the
life of Hadrian by Spartianus, however, occurs a passage from which
something more definite can be gained : Ad orientem profectus per
Athenas iter fecit, atque opera quae apud Athenienses coeperat de-
dicavit, ut lovis Olympii aedem et aram sibi (§ 13). Here we learn
that the dedication took place on one of his journeys to the East,
and this at once brings us again to the chronology of his travels.
Almost all chronologists agree that Hadrian visited Athens at least
three times as Emperor; and the problem is to determine the dates
of his last two visits, and to decide on which one the dedication took
place. On this point opinions vary considerably (Hertzberg, II. 329).
Lenormant (Recherches Arch, a Eleusis: Rec. dHnscr., p. 179),
Clinton (Fast. Rom., p. 124), and Eckhel (Doctr. Num., VI. p.

* Sec the full collation of the various views in Hertzbei'g, II. p. 301 ff.